Nikolay Vladimirovich Zateev (June 30, 1926, Nizhny Novgorod — August 28, 1998, Moscow) was a Soviet naval officer, a captain 1st rank, and the first commander of the nuclear submarine K-19. A native of Nizhny Novgorod, he went down in the history of the fleet as the commander who prevented a nuclear catastrophe in the North Atlantic in 1961.[1]
Childhood and Education
He was born into a working-class family. From 1934 he attended Secondary School No. 23 named after Kalinin, completing seven grades in 1941. He then entered a naval special school, after which he was enrolled in the Baku Naval Preparatory School.[4] In 1943 he was drafted into the Red Army.[3] In 1944 he became a cadet at the Frunze Higher Naval School in Leningrad, graduating in 1948 with a specialization in navigation. During his years of study he met his future wife, Antonina; soon after his graduation they had a daughter, Irina.
Service Before K-19
After graduating from the school, Zateev served in the Black Sea Fleet, successively holding the posts of helm group commander, commander of the BCh-1 (navigation department), assistant commander, and senior assistant commander of a submarine. In 1954 he completed the Leningrad Higher Officer Courses for Submarine Commanders and was given command of a submarine. For excellent results in torpedo firing, by order of USSR Minister of Defense Georgy Zhukov he was promoted ahead of schedule to the next rank — a case unique among submariners of those years.[2] In 1957 he underwent special training on nuclear submarines, and in 1958, with the rank of captain 3rd rank, he was transferred to the Northern Fleet and appointed commander of K-19, the lead nuclear-powered submarine cruiser of Project 658, which carried three ballistic missiles on board.[4]
The K-19 Accident (1961)
On July 4, 1961, during the "Polar Circle" exercises in the North Atlantic, near the island of Jan Mayen, where a NATO military base was located, an accident occurred on K-19: a rupture of the reactor's primary cooling circuit. The temperature in the reactor compartment kept rising, threatening an uncontrolled chain reaction and a nuclear explosion. Its consequences next to a NATO base during a period of acute Soviet-American confrontation could have been interpreted as a strike on U.S. territory.
On Zateev's decision, the crew devised a plan to build an improvised pipeline to deliver cooling water to the overheated reactor core. Welding work in the active section of the reactor compartment was carried out without radiation protection, with radiation levels constantly climbing and no communication with headquarters. In the end, the additional cooling was connected, the reactor temperature returned to normal, and the reactor was brought to a safe state. Running on a single reactor, the submarine made its way to meet Soviet diesel submarines; on July 5, 1961, the entire crew was transferred to the submarines S-270 and S-159, and then to destroyers. K-19 was successfully towed to its base on the Kola Peninsula.[3]
Eight crew members died within two weeks from the radiation sickness contracted during the effort to contain the accident. The actions of the commander and crew were judged to be the only correct ones; Zateev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. All information about the incident was classified, and the surviving submariners were given the official diagnosis of "asthenovegetative syndrome." The submarine received the nickname "Hiroshima" in the fleet; in the 1990s a Hollywood film based on its story was made in the United States.[4]
Later Service and Public Activity
After a course of treatment for radiation sickness, Zateev was appointed deputy commander of a submarine division, but he never returned to command submarines. In 1962–1965 he studied at the Leningrad Naval Academy, after which he became deputy head of a department in one of the Navy's units in Leningrad. In 1966–1972 he was a senior officer of the Navy's combat training service in Moscow. From 1972 to 1986 he served as an authorized representative of the state commission for the acceptance of Navy ships. In 1985–1986 he was discharged to the reserve with the rank of captain 1st rank.[1][3]
After retiring, until 1995 he worked as an assistant to the general director of a transport machine-building design bureau in Moscow.[4] From 1990 he took an active part in the work of the Committee of Veterans of Special-Risk Units of the Russian Federation; it was Zateev who first publicly spoke about the 1961 accident and gave the committee the names of the submariners who had contained it so that awards and documents could be processed.[3]
He died on August 28, 1998. He is buried at the Kuzminskoye Cemetery in Moscow, in the K-19 memorial, next to the graves of the five crew members who died in July 1961.[3]
Nizhny Novgorod Connection
Zateev spent his childhood and youth in Nizhny Novgorod: from 1926 to 1943 he lived at 14 Oshar Street. In 2004, a memorial plaque of black granite with a portrait of the submariner was installed on the site where the house once stood. The text on the plaque states that, thanks to the courage of the commander and crew of the K-19, a nuclear catastrophe was averted in the North Atlantic on July 4, 1961.[4]
Awards
- Order of the Red Banner (August 9, 1961)[1]
- Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR," 3rd class (1981)[1]
- Order "For Personal Courage" (1988)[1]
- Medal "For Battle Merit" (1953)[1]
- Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945" (1945)[3]
Sources
- gallery.ddt-chkalov.ru — A Feat Worthy of a Film! — Internet project "WE ARE TOGETHER"
- opentextnn.ru — ZATEEV N.V. (1926—1998) — OPEN TEXT
- names52.ru — Zateev Nikolay Vladimirovich
- k19.ru — Zateev Nikolay Vladimirovich — Soviet Submarine K-19